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Just one time I would like to see the reporters at the Chronicle of the Horse do a little investigative reporting. There has to more than this to the story. And, by the way, this goes for the Parkland and EHV stories. Ah well, by discontent is a byproduct of working for a newspaper for nine years. Our sister publication, The Patriot-News, broke the Jerry Sandusky story. Now that was journalism. All done by a junior reporter who would not stop asking questions and digging. She was won a Pulitzer Prize for her work on the story. The reporters at my place of employment were, for the most part, the same. They would dig and dig and dig until they got more facts. Journalism is dying in this country in favor of blogs spouting opinions and publications serving as pr firms.

Well the Chronicle isn't really meant to be an investigative journalism paper.... If you would like to start one by all means go for it. Nobody is required to speak to the Chronicle and I imagine if they really started digging into some things they wouldn't get press passes for most of the events or have access to any riders.

And in this day and age I'd appreciate the media and journalists fact checking before reporting stories. Take the Yahoo story about Nevin Shapiro. Very little corraboration besides a criminal's word. Made a big splash but who knows how much is actually true. Sometimes it seems that in order to be the first to report it turns into I'll take a little fact and just make the rest up and report it as we go instead of getting everything in a row first.

ETA: although it would have been nice for the journalists who reported on Mante T'eo to actually fact check to see if somebody existed or there was a death record....

I don't blame her at all, she probably realized Bill Moroney and the rest of the old boys club wasn't going to let her accomplish anything of substance. I think she was smart to get out and those other organizations are lucky to have her.

We noticed the elimination of Shelby’s blog and name from the USHJA website and decided to ask what had happened. We also thought it was remiss to not have been announced. So we asked questions and got limited answers.

We try to balance our reporting on such topics with maintaining a cooperative relationship with our governing bodies, which is necessary in our daily operations.

We provided the information to you in a free and timely manner; the Chronicle strives to keep its readers as informed as possible, which takes effort, manpower and resources.

People never give the real reason when they resign from a job. Reading between the lines and with the timing I suspect she doesn't want to work with Bill.
Or maybe she just got a better offer and that can't be shared yet.

We noticed the elimination of Shelby’s blog and name from the USHJA website and decided to ask what had happened. We also thought it was remiss to not have been announced. So we asked questions and got limited answers.

We try to balance our reporting on such topics with maintaining a cooperative relationship with our governing bodies, which is necessary in our daily operations.

We provided the information to you in a free and timely manner; the Chronicle strives to keep its readers as informed as possible, which takes effort, manpower and resources.

Molly, I understand that you sometimes have to play along with the parties you are covering but it is frustrating sometimes for everyone - believe me our newspaper struggled sometimes to dig for all of the facts. However, if Sarah Ganim had not stuck through a very difficult investigation with a lot of people with a lot of power trying to keep the facts buried Jerry Sandusky may not be behind bars today. I am not saying that the horse show world is more important (although there are some rather unsavory pedophile rumors in the horse show world) but I would like to see some balance between just covering the news (which the Chronicle does very well, indeed) and a deeper, investigative piece. Just my opinion - I could very well be wrong and you all are free to castigate me ;-).

We will all really miss Shelby. She was the one who told it straight. And Bill threw her under the bus at the convention.

I am not being argumentative, because I agree it sounds like she is totally disgusted and over the HJ industry based on her words, and decision to not only leave but also not even be involved in A shows anymore "judge locally and teach a few friends". Just curious if you could tell me how BM threw her under the bus? Might help shed some light to those of us who weren't there... TIA

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. - William Jennings Bryan

I'm very intrigued with the whole situation. I have a lot of respect for Shelby (she was the director of riding when I was at Sweet Briar), and I know she was very dedicated to improving the industry and standardizing the quality of instruction/integrity of the sport. I wonder what would cause this sudden change...